Liquid Daffodil's Notification Center is almost here, we take a quick look at the Windows Phone version

It's almost here. A unified notification center for the entire Windows ecosystem. Unfortunately, this isn't a native feature from Microsoft, but the good news is developer Liquid Daffodil has submitted the Unification apps for approval. What's Unification exactly? It's a notification center for Windows Phone (both 7 and 8) and Windows 8, offering consumers the missing piece of the puzzle for a centralised location displaying missed notifications.

Live Tiles are great, toast notifications are awesome, but there's nowhere for missed notifications to be displayed. Should a Windows Phone owner miss an app notification, it's lost forever. That's until now with Unification. We've looked at the app and service from Liquid Daffodil, following the development progress and boy are we excited for its release. So much so, that our own Windows Phone Central app will be supporting the Unification service.

The general idea is to create a service with an app for each of the supported platforms:

Windows Phone 7.x

Windows Phone 8

Windows 8

These apps act as a notification center, where apps that support the Unification service will be listed alongside all the missed notifications from each one. For apps to work with the service it does require developers to include some code and make everything tick along nicely, but should enough momentum develop once everything goes live by next week, we could well see the birth of something special indeed.

As one can see from the above screenshots, it's a simple, yet efficient way of managing content that requires attention. Yes, a Live Tile is available for the apps. Ever wanted to have all your Twitter notifications in one place with third-party apps and content? This is now possible. A number of apps are already planned to be adding unification support in the future. Here's a list of what's to come:

Feed Me

giffgaff

MeTweets

Ovivo

Pepper

Picit

Pinsation

WPCentral (woohoo!)

Check out our quick look at Unification app for Windows Phone 8 in the video below:

We won't build up the hype too much, but from what we've played around with so far, Unification is looking to have the potential to be pretty big. Liquid Daffodil is taking a huge move with this service and if it takes off, we could be looking at a possible insight into how Microsoft could effectively implement its own native feature.

Consumers: We're told Unification will be available for both Windows Phone and Windows 8 in the coming days (currently being certified), so be sure to keep an eye on our feed for the announcement when the app is available. We're almost there, folks. A few more days and everyone will be able to take advantage of the Unification service.

Developers: Do you wish to get involved and participate in the Unification service with your app(s)? Be sure to contact the team at unifyus@liquiddaffodil.com. Liquid Daffodil are after all developers who support Windows and / or Windows Phone. Unification is a free project to participate in (and will continue to be free once the service hits gold and goes live), so we urge you to at least contact them about your app(s).

This is awesome. I hate having to run to my phone when I hear the alert cause sometimes its for something I don't have pinned to the homescreen or the live tile is broken(a Windows Phone 7.8 tale) and you're left wondering...which one was it. I can't wait!

So my understanding is that the 3rd party aps will have to subscribed or something to the app to get notification's or is it just automatic when you get a toast notification from any app it will be there.

Now that's a great idea! They could just announce something like this now and even help Unification to get more steam hence helping their own customers as well and buy themselves time foe the native not. center. So many birds... So many birds...

I like this idea, but I feel like once this thing actually starts getting used by consumers and deverlopers, Microsoft will come out with their own notification center. It's just like Growl and OSX notifications except it won't take as long.

Okay... but it's native. I don't really care about all the other features if it's not going to be supported. If everyone in the future made their apps or updated them around this then sure, that would be a good thing, but I don't think that will happen. When Microsoft makes their notification center, it won't matter what happens, it will all work natively. And, who knows what it will be like? I doubt it will be just a super simple missed notification list. I has to be more than that.

I mean, I wish it would turn out how people hope it will, but it won't. It's sad, but this thing won't matter then. It doesn't matter how many features it has.

Those are all the same things folks said about Skype a while back, but luckily no one paid attention and just kept using Skype...then Microsoft moved to that. There is a long list of "Skype scenarios" in Microsoft's past AND future. :)

Well, I'm a bit of a WP Newb, love my 920! Just not seeing a lot of apps in familiar with from my 'old' ecosystem. I'd like to see a notification center around all email, texts, news apps, twitter, fb, etc.

The reality is, what Microsoft will be eventually integrating with the devices will cover more "apps", but not be nearly as comprehensive, extensible, or robust.
Unification not only integrates with Windows Phone 7 devices (something Microsoft will NOT provide) but also exposes services to allow Developers to be in TOTAL CONTROL over what gets sent.
Here is a quick, easy example: Microsoft's eventual "baked in" Notification Center will simply "trap" incoming notifications, but Unification will allow developers TO SEND WHATEVER THEY WANT, including Images, Global Notifications, etc. to the Unification Hub. Unification also allows much longer messages. Toast notifications are typically very short in length and so developers put very little into them, but Unification supports up to 255 characters (and images) in every Notification.
Unification also has Search and on-the-fly Translation, neither of which are slated for Microsoft's eventual integration.
All in all, Unifications is a far more powerful solution, and as long as users help the Developers of their favorite apps "get on board" it will be phenomenal.

So will it function with the native messaging, Facebook, and mail apps? Facebook messaging doesn't work with most iPhones, because they use the private messages rather than Facebook chat. So it would be nice if this worked with the Facebook app to provide an experience similar to iPhones.

I'm confused. You say fb messaging doesn't work with most iPhones, but you want an experience similar to iPhones. I don't have extensive experience with the iPhone so this is honest confusion. Can you elaborate on what you're talking about?

Gladly, thanks for asking!
I thought there was a huge bug with my messaging app for a long time, until I realized it only failed to work with iPhones. What happens with MOST iPhones, is that I can send a fb message to people with my messaging app, switched to Facebook, but their replies don't come through. I have to sign into Facebook and actually reply with private messages in order to use it as a chat. I believe this is because the messaging app for WP utilizes Facebook messenger or chat, with iPhones default to simply using the private messages. Truth be told WP is really the more "integrated" of the two, but I don't really have anything to send me an alert when somebody just sends me a private message on Facebook. If this notification centre worked like iPhones, where I could be notified when someone sends me a private message that would be great. Then I could simply reply to it like all of my friends on iPhone do, rather than trying to explain every time that the reason for the problem is because iPhone says it is "integrated Facebook with ios6" even though it doesn't, and have my iPhone friends point out what they (mistakenly) believe to be a flaw with wp8.
In all fairness though... Between the Me hub, and official MS Facebook app, I really SHOULD get push notified about private messages, but I don't.
That said, the messaging app works amazingly well when talking to anything other than iPhone, who utilize the Facebook messenger feature!
Hope that explains what I meant. I really just want the damn thing to work lol

Must be nice.
I don't know how else to explain it, other than to say it doesn't work most of the time. It would be nice if a notification centre gave me a work around with fast, up to date push notifications and a quick means of reply, which is exactly how IOS 6 handles it natively.

Skype has more features and also works better on ios as well as Andriod, its unreliable on WP8 and unusable on WP7.8
And Don't deviate from the main topic of unification centre from liquid daffodil and why its an important development.

That's a vapourware as nothing has been announced till now and MS doesn't even care about WP7 users which is evident from the 7.8 update which introduced lag to a smooth OS. So, this will be useful addition to the Windows phone ecosystem.

I have absolutely no lag in my WP7.8 Lumia 800. No lag whatsoever. You have alot of problems that tend to happen to you... It doesn't happen to be that you're actually not using WP and just here to be a pain in the butt?

Are you not the whole got away from the topic? I'm pretty sure I can say what I please.. So since you seem to all platforms so well why stay with WP? I would be happy to lose one whiny fanboy who clearly isn't happy.. I'm sure you could join the team of lemmings over at android.. You would fit right in.

I just don't see the value of this app. People keep pining for a notification center, but nobody has been able to convince me WHY. The only things I care to be notified about I keep on my Start screen. Their live tiles tell me if I have outstanding notifications. I simply click on the live tile to get what I missed. I see a need for ANOTHER place for notifications to be. Sorry. Meh.

The problem with the tiles is they are not real time. Example, I go into mail, check mail, say a few emails arrive. I then go back to home tile screen and the mail tile updates to 3 yo show the 3 mails that arrived...but I was just in there (mail app) so these are no longer new mails. I have to go back to mail app and then back to home to update it properly. The tiles are not real time. This is the biggest annoyance I have with Windows Phone 8 experience.

and why do you need notification the instance a new e-mail arrives? E-mails were NEVER meant for urgency. There are sms and phone calls for that. I don't see why the delay in live tiles is a problem. I totally agree with scubadog, live tiles make a notification center on windows phone totally obsolete. Anyone who thinks otherwise doesn't know what live tiles are or how to properly use them

I don't see the point of a Notification (Unification) centre.
The e-mail 'problem' you cite will be the same for this app. Any app can only update at a minimum of 30 minute intervals.
So, this app would run into the same problems of missed notifications. It makes no sense at all!!! Just app that basically replaces the Live Tile functions.
I'm not knocking the developers at all. Kudos to them for giving people what they want. To me, it just reeks of Android type function.
I don't get why people who own WP devices are always trying to turn it into an Android device, or the Apple 'there's an app for that' mentality.
Never had a problem with missing anything. Learn to use the functions of the OS correctly.
It's a Zen experience if used correctly......

Well, first, how does a notification center address that issue? It doesn't seem related. However, I have to say I've never run into the problem you're describing. So far, live tiles on my phone have reacted exactly as I expected them to--only new items that have come in since I opened the app last show up on the live tile counter. Could this be more of a device-specific problem? I can see how it would be annoying. I'm just saying that I've owned the original Focus, the Lumia 900 and now the Lumia 920, and I've yet to see that particular issue.

Actually, once Microsoft adds that feature themselves, I don't doubt that it will be an optional feature (likely that you will be able to turn off or on via the Settings). I'll be turning it off, of course. But my post was to open up opportunities for SOMEbody to convince me why it is such a desparately necessary feature. I'm not beyond convincing, but I'll admit that I'm convinced that the live tiles do that job. If I don't see the toast, it at increases the counter on the live tile for the particular app. I only have the apps on my Start screen for which the notifications are of any importance. So, what else would be missing? I'm seriously asking.

Just open the e-mail app, and slide left to the 'Unread' screen. Or look at the highlighted ones....
It's down to you about the unread e-mails.
Would you like WP to make you breakfast in the morning???

You proved my point...notifications and live tile updates are flakey at best. MS needs to get this crap fixed, especially since it's a hallmark of the OS. This is really the only complaint I have with the OS.

It actually meets every guideline for "Metro", but sorry you don't like it, sincerely. There's always someone that will complain about some minor thing...some people would complain about getting a $1000 bill if wrinkly, I've found. :)

Another great value added app for Windows Phone from Liquid Daffodil that MS should have included with WinPhone. LD apps make my WinPhone even better and include features my iPhone 5 doesn't have. Thanks again LD!!! -SAB

For me personally, i see no use for this at all. The no 1 reason i like windows phones is NO CLUTTER and an overly done notification center will not serve any point to me. I have no issues with seeing changes to my system updates, mails and history. I just pray that Microsoft won't force a notification thing into the system. If you want that stuff one should go to the systems (OS) that practice these directions. Windows Phone has to stay true to its no clutter philosophy, or else it will fail!

If you don't see the point in being able to see notifications you missed, and a history of notification in one place, then don't use it. All they have to do is have it show up when you swipe right. It could have the same layout as the app screen when you swipe left. It doesn't have to be cluttered. I would use this constantly.